Brexit article: the Great Repeal Bill White Paper

The UK Government has published a white paper on the legislative process for the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union, which provides some guidance on what will be a lengthy process to extricate England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland from the EU framework which has been an intrinsic part of those legal systems since the UK passed the European Communities Act (ECA) upon its accession to the EEC in 1972.

The Great Repeal Bill

The term « Great Repeal Bill » was first used in October last year when the Prime Minister, Theresa May, made her first major speech on her approach to Brexit at the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham.  The term is designed to bring to mind the Great Reform Act, the name commonly given to the Representation of the People Act of 1832, a landmark piece of legislation that started the reform of parliamentary democracy in the UK.  The Great Repeal Bill is seen as a crucial part of the recovery of the sovereignty of the UK from the EU – the much discussed « taking back control ».

Now the White Paper has indicated in more detail how the Bill will operate.

It will do three main things:

• First, repeal the ECA and return power to UK institutions;
   
• Second, convert the « acquis » – the entire body of EU legislation then in force – into UK law on the stroke of midnight on the last day of our membership of the Union; and
   
• Third, create powers to make secondary legislation to enable ‘corrections’ to be made to laws that would otherwise no longer operate appropriately after the UK’s departure from the Union.

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